"I don't care how poor I am," thus he wrote to his mother, "but I will be my own master.

To be at other people's orders brings out all the bad in me; it makes me sullen and bearish, and all sorts of ugly things, which I certainly am not when my true self has play.

So, you see, I must find some independent way of life.
If I had to live by carrying round a Punch and Judy show, I should vastly prefer it to making a large income as somebody's servant." Meanwhile, unfortunately for a young man of this temperament, his prospects had become less assured.

There was perturbation in the sugar world; income from St.Kitts and from Whitechapel had sensibly diminished, and it seemed but too likely, would continue to do so.

For some half-year Will lived in London, "looking about him," then he announced that Godfrey Sherwood, at present sole representative of Sherwood Brothers, had offered him an active partnership in Little Ailie Street, and that he had accepted it.